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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23657233">The Hideout</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyRose/pseuds/GinnyRose'>GinnyRose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Last Hours Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alastair is a barista, Alastair is tired, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops &amp; Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anna Lightwood is a Little Shit, Anna and Lucie Mean Well, Attempt at Humor, Because we deserve nice things, Embarassed Thomas Lightwood, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hot Chocolate, Late Night Conversations, Lucie Herondale is a Good Bro, Lucie Herondale is a Little shit, Lucie Herondale is a Treasure, M/M, Making Out, Meet-Cute, Mild Sexual Content, No Angst, Oblivious Thomas Lightwood, One-Shot, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, Thomas is the customer with a huge crush, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, lightstairs - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:08:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,501</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23657233</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyRose/pseuds/GinnyRose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas just wanted a nice cup of hot chocolate to get him through his day. He certainly wasn't expecting his childhood crush to be on the other side of the counter, more attractive than ever. And he certainly wasn't expecting to strike up a new friendship in the midst of coffee beans and overly-stressed college students. </p>
<p>Or: Thomas meets a cute barista at the local coffee shop and swears he only returns because the hot chocolate is excellent.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alastair Carstairs/Thomas Lightwood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>315</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Hideout</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thomas rubbed his fingers together as he stepped into the small coffee shop. He had forgone gloves that morning – it had been deceivingly sunny and he had been in a rush for his first class – and now his punishment was icy, numb fingers reddened by the bitter wind. He worked on helping the feeling return to his hands as he looked around the café.</p>
<p>He had never been to the Hideout – as much as he liked the idea of shopping and dining local, he almost always ended up gravitating to one of the two Starbucks on campus – but Anna had met with some people to do a group project in it and she had sworn it was the perfect study spot and had absolutely amazing drinks. Thomas could see why. The Starbucks stores on campus were always cramped with too many tables and chairs, loud from low chatter and the radio turned up too high and swarming with students looking for their caffeine fix. The Hideout, on the other hand, felt spacious despite its small interior thanks largely to massive windows that looked onto a beautiful view of the river that wrapped around the campus, the few customers inside were all students quietly studying with books, coffee mugs, and computers strewn around them on polished pine tables and the only noise in the store was the radio softly playing some song Thomas had never heard.</p>
<p>The counter at the front of the store was constructed of the same light pine as the tables but the center of it opened to a massive glass display of delicious looking treats. Behind the counter, Thomas could see two large, sleek and modern looking coffee machines covered in all sorts of knobs and levers he couldn’t even begin to understand perched on another counter. On the wall above them, a menu was elegantly scrawled on a blackboard in various shades of chalk.</p>
<p>No one was behind the counter – he could see a door just off to the side of the coffee machine counter that led into a little kitchen or storage area that the person who was working the counter must have slipped into – so Thomas took his time perusing the menu. The offered coffee drinks were fairly standard but there were a few drinks under the specials tab that looked promising. Thomas, who had been born and raised in London, was not much of a coffee drinker but was always keen to find a truly good cup of tea and, as a personal rule, was very fond of hot chocolates in almost any form. As such, he was torn between a tea drink called a London Fog that he’d heard about but never had a chance to try before and a spiced hot chocolate. He was inwardly debating the merits of the two when a young man came out from the door he’d noticed before and Thomas quite lost his entire train of thought.</p>
<p>The other man was quite a bit shorter than Thomas and far more slender– not that that was particularly remarkable given the fact that Thomas stood well over six feet and rather broad– but he stood straight and his dark eyes met Thomas’s with ease. His hair was inky black and long, reaching under his jaw to just touch his slender neck and lightly tussled as though he frequently ran his fingers through it to keep it out of his face. His face was strikingly angular and his eyes, such a dark brown they appeared black against his olive skin, were framed by the fullest lashes Thomas had ever seen on another man.</p>
<p>In short, the man was easily the most beautiful, attractive person Thomas had ever seen and Thomas was very, very gay.</p>
<p>Helplessly, uselessly gay.</p>
<p>“How can I help you?” The man said, after a moment too long. Thomas was surprised that, instead of speaking in the long American twang he had been slowly becoming used to, the other man spoke with a distinctly British accent that reminded him faintly of home and he didn’t speak for another moment until the man raised a single eyebrow at him in a silent question.</p>
<p>“Oh, oh! So sorry.” Thomas could feel his cheeks getting warm and he instinctively ducked his head and brought a hand up to rub at the nape of his neck. “I haven’t quite decided,” he added, speaking more to the floor than the gorgeous man in front of him.</p>
<p>There was silence for a moment, as though the other man was trying to give Thomas some time to make up his own mind. Then, speaking slowly with a bored drawl that suggested he’d rather do anything else, the man behind the counter said, “What do you generally like? I’d be happy to help you decide.”</p>
<p>“Um, I was debating between the spiced hot chocolate and the London Fog tea? Are they any good?” Thomas’s words came out like a question and the warmth in his cheeks grew even as he brought his gaze back up to meet the other man’s.</p>
<p>The man didn’t even hesitate. “If you are looking for a tea that reminds you of England, stay away from the London Fog. It’s actually atrocious. The spiced hot chocolate is good, as long as you like a rich dark chocolate taste and can handle cayenne.” Thomas didn’t know if it was common practice for a barista to outright insult one of their store’s drinks but the other man didn’t strike him as the sort to care even if it wasn’t.</p>
<p>“I’ll take a small hot chocolate, then. To go, please.” He added as the man’s hand automatically went for one of the ceramic cups stacked neatly beside the register. The man gave a slight nod and grabbed a paper cup with one hand while the other swiftly typed in Thomas’s order. He had long, slender fingers, the kind his Uncle Will would have called a musician’s fingers, and Thomas found himself idly wondering if the other man played anything.</p>
<p>“Would you like anything else?” He asked, darting a glance up at Thomas and shaking him from his thoughts. Feeling as though his cheeks would never return to their normal color, Thomas shook his head. “That will be $2.75, then.” The man said, pressing one last button on the register. Wordlessly, Thomas pulled out his wallet and handed the man his debit card. “Name?” He asked as he swiped the card and handed it back.</p>
<p>“Thomas.” Thomas stood awkwardly as he watched the man scrawl his name on the side of the cup before turning to begin making the drink.</p>
<p>“It’ll be ready in just a moment.” The man called out over his shoulder and Thomas took that as his cue to take his awkward hovering to the far side of the counter where a small, needless sign with “pick-up” written across it hung from the ceiling.</p>
<p>Feeling rather like he would look like a total creep if he just stood around watching the barista make his drink, Thomas took to looking around the shop again. There was a hodgepodge of artwork, signs, and framed posters decorating the wall opposite the windows and Thomas took some time to examine them. There seemed to be no general cohesiveness to the art – some were pleasant but unremarkable landscapes while others were brightly colored portraits and a few were little more than abstract blotches that Thomas didn’t really understand but knew were enjoyable for others. A closer inspection of one of the small white signs underneath the paintings explained why there was such variety – they were all done by local painters, probably mostly students from the art department. Some, Thomas noted as he glanced at the other little signs, were for sell but others weren’t.</p>
<p>There was a particularly beautiful portrait of a blonde woman simply titled ‘Emma’ that he really liked but before he could read any more about it, he heard “Thomas,” called out and he turned back to the counter where the barista was standing on the other side of the counter, Thomas’s drink ready and waiting.</p>
<p>“Oh, thank you.” Thomas said automatically, reaching out to grab the cup. The other man handed it off without comment but his fingers dipped at the last minute, gently trailing against Thomas’s and he felt himself blush again. “I was just admiring the artwork,” he blurted out without thinking. The other man stared at him flatly for a moment before glancing at the artwork beyond Thomas’s shoulder. “Lots of local artists seem to pretty good.” God, could the floor just swallow him where he stood? Why did he <em>keep</em> talking?</p>
<p>“They’re alright. The only one really worth the wall space is Blackthorn but the owner insists on supporting “local talents” so anyone with canvas and too much time on their hands can get up there.” The man accompanies his words with a dismissive shrug and Thomas finds himself with little to do but nod slightly, feeling quite a bit foolish. This was precisely why he should never be allowed to speak to attractive men.</p>
<p>“Right. Well, thanks for the hot chocolate. Hope you have a good day,” Thomas said, trying hard to keep the awkwardness out of his voice.</p>
<p>“You too,” It was probably Thomas’s imagination but he swore he could hear faint amusement in the other man’s voice and he couldn’t help but duck his head slightly again as he turned and made his way out of the Hideout.</p>
<p>He wondered if the man had been working the day Anna had come in. He wouldn’t put it past his cousin to see a cute man and send Thomas their way, regardless of not knowing the first thing about him or even if he swung his way. She was well-meaning but invasive like that. She didn’t understand why Thomas was adamant about not dating while in the States and she definitely didn’t get why he didn’t flirt with cute men, even just a little. Anna was an incorrigible flirt and always seemed to be seeing another girl or, on a few more momentous occasions, helping one or more out of her apartment on Sunday mornings when Thomas had come over a little too early for their standing brunch date.</p>
<p>He knew, had the barista been a woman, Anna wouldn’t have hesitated to flirt but Thomas wasn’t Anna and, as evidenced from his painfully awkward slip up with the art, shouldn’t ever try to even hold conversations with men, let alone flirt. He wouldn’t mention the man when he told Anna that he had checked out the Hideout he decided as he walked quickly down the street and back towards campus. She might not have even met the man and if she had, Thomas wasn’t about to tell her how awkward he had made it.</p>
<p>Although he would have to tell her she was right about it being good. The hot chocolate the man had made Thomas was absolutely <em>divine</em>.</p>
<p>Thomas hadn’t expected to find himself back at the Hideout anytime soon. He had told Anna he had gone, of course, but apart from telling her he did enjoy his drink, they hadn’t said anything more and the store – along with the beautiful barista – faded from Thomas’s mind. He continued to pay far too much for Starbucks and take it to the quiet but often crowded library to study. It was his normal rhythm and Thomas didn’t really have time to think about instituting any changes to it as the Spring semester began to pick up. That was, until he made the mistake of agreeing to help Lucie on her freshman year project and found himself, once again, standing awkwardly in the Hideout.</p>
<p>He had known Lucie for years – her brother was one of his best friends and they were both the children of his uncle Will. They weren’t actually related to each other, but their parents were good friends and they both shared Anna as a cousin and so they had always called each other’s parents ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’. It hadn’t surprised anyone that Anna had decided to skip off to the United States for school – she had always been the free spirit of their social circle – and very few people were surprised when Lucie had announced that she was following in Anna’s footsteps and going to America for school. Lucie’s mother, Thomas’s Aunt Tessa, had been born and raised in Brooklyn and Lucie had always had a soft, romanticized image of her mother’s birth country.</p>
<p>It had, however, been quite shocking to everyone involved that Thomas had decided to spend his second year abroad in the United States, alongside Anna and Lucie. By far, Thomas was the least adventurous and most quiet of the lot, and everyone had assumed that if he went abroad at all, he would go somewhere he had been before – Spain or perhaps France although Thomas hadn’t thought much of Paris the last time he’d visited. But Thomas had picked the United States on a whim and, although he had argued for the year abroad as a way to “meet new people” and “share in a culture that was historically similar but also quite different from our own, Mum,” he had spent quite a bit of time lounging around with Anna or Lucie and feeling quite a bit homesick.</p>
<p> Which was why he had found himself tragically free to be the person Lucie bounced her ideas off of on the Friday night before her project proposal was due. He and Lucie had originally agreed to meet and work in the Starbucks closest to the library but after seeing the ridiculously long line at the register – Lucie evidently was not the only student to disregard the Saturday due dates on their classes’ syllabi - and hearing the atrocious live music playing – why anyone thought inviting college bands to play inhouse every weekend was a good idea, Thomas would never know – they had immediately nixed the plan.</p>
<p>“Anna told me about this super nice little coffee shop that’s open late!” Lucie had said and Thomas, so distracted by the off-key rendition of “Senorita” blaring in his ears, had agreed without thinking.</p>
<p>Which is how he found himself, not only helping Lucie with her assignment because had nothing better to do on a Friday night, but also standing awkwardly in a completely empty Hideout, waiting once more for someone to come out from the back, and broadcasting to the world that he had nothing better to do than help his friend on their project on a Friday night.</p>
<p>“You’ve been here before, Thomas,” Lucie asked in her peculiar way of not asking at all and didn’t wait for a response. “What have you gotten?”</p>
<p>“The spiced hot chocolate, it was really good.” Thomas answered absently, trying to discreetly crane his neck to look into the tiny window on the door to the back room. Thomas couldn’t imagine the man would work both a morning and evening shift? Certainly he was the type to have something better to do than pick up closing shifts on Friday nights.</p>
<p>“Spiced hot chocolate? What do you spice hot chocolate with? Certainly not peppers?” Lucie rattled off, completely oblivious to Thomas’s discomfort. “Do you think perhaps they’re actually closed and we missed the sign?” Lucie asked, once their time alone in the shop had far passed the normal.</p>
<p>“Perhaps.” A drawling voice called from the back room. “Or perhaps the barista is just hanging in the back room because no one ever comes in on Friday.” And then, quite suddenly and well before Thomas could prepare himself, the same man before was strolling out from the backroom, not even trying to hide the fact that he was sliding his cellphone away into the back pocket of his black trousers. Thomas scrambled for something to say that wouldn’t result in him panic-buying the next plane ticket back home, but before he could say anything at all Lucie let out a surprised little gasp.</p>
<p>“<em>Alastair</em>?” there was a note of happy surprise in her voice as a look of recognition passed the other man’s – Alastair’s – face. Thomas had no idea where the two could have possibly met, but it was obvious that they had at some point. Lucie was wearing a far too pleased expression now for it just to be a passing coincidence. Thomas, however, was pretty sure that he knew or at least knew of all of Lucie’s friends back in London and Alastair didn’t seem the Creative Writing major type, so he had no idea where the two of them would’ve met.</p>
<p>“Alastair?” He asked, unsure whether he was addressing Lucie, Alastair or somehow both. It didn’t matter in the end because it was Lucie who answered.</p>
<p>“Don’t you remember, Thomas? This is Daisy’s older brother!” Oh, that explained it. Daisy was actually Cordelia Carstairs – Thomas wasn’t quite sure where the nickname Daisy had come from apart from the fact that both Lucie and her older brother regularly used it – and she had been Lucie’s absolute best friend since childhood despite the fact that her family traveled around extensively for her father’s work and rarely seemed to be in London. Thomas himself had met Cordelia just a handful of times and her older brother even less. It was no wonder that Thomas hadn’t recognized Alastair – it had been a good several years since the last time he’d seen the other man. “She told me you were studying in the States but she didn’t mention it was <em>here</em>!” Lucie continued, turning back to Alastair without waiting for Thomas to respond.</p>
<p>“Yes, well Cordelia knows better than to go about declaring my business,” Alastair said, although there wasn’t any heat in his voice. “I suppose it is nice to see you again, Lucie.” He added, foregoing any attempt of professionalism in favor of casually leaning over the counter. Thomas’s heart skipped a beat once Alastair’s dark eyes landed on him. Looking at him now, Thomas was a little surprised he hadn’t recognized him earlier. He had only meet him two or three times, but Thomas had thought Alastair Carstairs was the most beautiful boy he had ever met then and the years had been very kind to him. Thomas felt himself blushing as he remembered the ways he had fumbled around Alastair then too. The years had evidently not been as kind to Thomas – at least not in his ability to speak in front of attractive men.</p>
<p>Alastair’s gaze was inquisitive for a moment before his eyes widened in recognition. “Thomas <em>Lightwood</em>?” He demanded and Thomas wasn’t sure if he was flattered that Alastair remembered him at all or worried at the disbelief in the other man’s voice. Feeling even more awkward with Lucie stifling a laugh besides him, he nodded sheepishly. Alastair’s expression turned incredulous. “My God, have you done nothing but grow for the past few years?” Thomas’s blush darkened as Lucie gave up all pretexts of being polite and burst out laughing.</p>
<p>Thomas had been very small and sickly as a child and he sometimes forgot, especially when he was busy ducking under low doorways or constantly looking down to make sure he wasn’t about to bump into someone or something, that there were people who only knew him before his last growth spurt. The last time he had seen Alastair, Thomas had been just about level with Lucie, who apart from being a good year younger than him just barely stood above shoulder height to him now. Thomas didn’t blame him for being surprised, although comments about his height had gotten rather old in the last year.</p>
<p>“I had a few growth spurts,” he admitted, raising one hand to rub against the back of his neck. Alastair’s eyes immediately drifted to his upraised up.</p>
<p>“And you got your tattoo?” He demanded, leaning in closer. Thomas glanced at his arm and saw that, with his sleeve lifted slightly, the bottommost point of his tattoo was visible. Thomas felt his face burn even more and found he couldn’t quite make eye contact with Alastair. He never thought the man would remember the short conversation they had the last time they’d met but it seemed that Alastair did not forget much.</p>
<p>“You know about his tattoo?” Lucie asked, apparently finally over her bout of laughter. “How? He’s only just gotten it. Won’t even show me.” There was a pout in her voice that Thomas had become all too familiar with since he’d gotten it a few weeks before.</p>
<p>“It’s private,” Thomas repeated his well-worn mantra. He didn’t know why he was so hesitant to show Lucie – or Anna for that matter, as she had also been yet to see it. He had been so excited to get it – to see the design of the compass he’d imagined so long finally get etched onto his skin – and the artist had done a phenomenal job. Thomas hadn’t been able to stop admiring it once she’d wiped up the bit of excess ink and had even taken a few photos to send people. But then the artist had wrapped up his arm, ordered him to leave it wrapped for at least an hour and then to try and keep it unexposed as much as possible while it healed and it had been simply hidden away. And then, that evening, Thomas had gone to send the photos to his friends back home and found that he couldn’t quite summon himself to press the send button.</p>
<p>The tattoo, an intricate compass and rose done all up in black lines stark against his pale skin, had been rattling in Thomas’s head since he had been fifteen and, until he voiced his idea out to the artist, he had told only one person in the world about it. He hadn’t even shared with his friends that he’d wanted a tattoo at all. It had suddenly felt, in that moment, as though Thomas was trying to lay bare a part of him that he wasn’t quite ready to share. And so he had deleted his unsent message and said nothing. The only reason anyone even knew about the tattoo at all was because Thomas was never quite aware enough of his sleeves to keep them pulled down and a bit of the wrapping around it had been visible when he’d gone out to eat with Lucie and Anna that evening. He’d been steadily refusing to show anyone ever since that moment, even going so far as to mute his group chat with his friends back home when they began spamming him with requests for pictures.</p>
<p>“I would like to see it,” Alastair said, looking up from Thomas’s arm to meet his eyes. And suddenly, with Alastair’s eyes fixed intently on his face, Thomas was no longer quite so worried about whether or not he was ready to lay himself bare.</p>
<p>“Yes, alright,” Thomas said quietly, after a moment. Alastair nearly smiled as he came around the counter for a better view and it was almost enough to block out Lucie’s indignant scoff. Thomas tried not to feel too self-conscious rolling up his sleeve in front of his small crowd, but it was hard when Alastair was standing so close to him, and he knew he was blushing faintly when he finally turned his arm around so that his tattoo was visible.</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s beautiful!” Lucie exclaimed softly by Thomas’s side – it seemed she had quite forgotten her brief bout of annoyance in favor of admiring the artwork. Thomas would have been relieved – part of his desire to keep it private had stemmed from a fear that his family and friends would not like it – had he not been so utterly focused on the man in front of him who was staring intently at the tattoo.</p>
<p>For what seemed like an excruciatingly long moment, Alastair showed no reaction at all. Then, slowly and deliberately as though giving Thomas time to move his arm away, he pressed one of his slender fingers against the tip of the compass and traced down its center until he reached the bottom tip. Thomas barely resisted the shiver that threatened to go up his spine as his skin came alive under the warmth of Alastair’s feathery touch. </p>
<p>“It’s just like you described,” Alastair said, then, tracing his finger back up absently and tapping on the center of the compass. Had Thomas been able to think about anything beyond the sparks of warmth shooting across his skin where Alastair had touched him, he would have noticed how quiet Lucie had become beside him as she carefully studied the two men’s interaction. “It’s lovely.” He added, dropping his hand lightly as though he had not just used it to set Thomas’s whole body ablaze.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Thomas said, feeling very self-conscious as he pushed his sleeve back down to hide the sudden eruption of goosebumps across his arm. Alastair’s touch had been merely friendly but his own reaction had not. It would be absolutely mortifying if Alastair – or Lucie, for that matter – noticed. “I got it at the Painted Lady - the woman who did it for me was a genius,” he added, because although he had come up with the concept art, the artist who had actually down the work of needling it carefully into his skin deserved the credit.</p>
<p>“Well, I’m glad you went to her, then, and didn’t let some random at a party mark up your skin because you were drunk.” Alastair said, a hint of scorn in his voice as though he was thinking of someone who had done exactly that. Just like that, the odd electricity that had seemed to permeate the air around Thomas at Alastair’s touch was broken and a sense of normalcy returned to the shop.</p>
<p>“Surely someone wouldn’t be that stupid?” Lucie somehow managed to sound both disbelieving and intrigued at the same time.</p>
<p>“You’d be surprised. Frat boys are a creature of their own mold.” Alastair answered back, already turning back to head behind the counter. Thomas felt a slight pang of loss at his retreat but brushed it aside. Alastair was working after all; it wasn’t like they were hanging out. And if Alastair was spending enough time with fraternities to know that the boys in them were wiling to allow a stranger permanently mark their skin at a party, he and Thomas probably wouldn’t end up hanging out for real anytime soon, anyway.</p>
<p>“What would you like?” Alastair asked, sidling himself behind the counter and leaning over it again. “It’s on me.” He added and Thomas wasn’t quite able to hide his surprise.</p>
<p>“Oh we couldn’t He said immediately. “Won’t you get in trouble?” The thought of Alastair being scolded or possibly losing his job entirely because of him and Lucie was unconscionable. But it seemed Alastair didn’t much care for he just raised an eyebrow at Thomas and spoke in a drawling voice again.</p>
<p>“Friends discount. And we’re allowed one free drink every four hours and I’ve been working all day, so no one is going to question it anyway.” He said and Thomas let himself relax as Lucie gave a little cheer. If it wasn’t going to hurt Alastair, there was no harm in accepting the generosity. It also definitely helped that Alastair referring to them as friends had made Thomas feel warm inside in a way he wasn’t about to acknowledge in public. </p>
<p>Lucie, who hadn’t been to the Hideout before, took some time to mull over several drinks before – at the behest of Alastair who claimed it was the best of all her options – ordering a matcha latte. Thomas, however, immediately ordered a spiced hot chocolate once Alastair’s gaze landed on him. Alastair seemed amused by that but didn’t comment as he turned and began making their drinks. Lucie, who had been allergic to silence since the day she was born, filled the few minutes it took to make their drinks with light chatter. She asked how Alastair’s mother and younger brother, who was only a toddler, were doing, asked how often he spoke with Cordelia and did he know that there was a boy at her uni who kept awkwardly hinting at going on dates with her even though she was dating James?</p>
<p> Lucie didn’t seem to mind that Alastair’s responses were brusque or even sometimes rude – he certainly hadn’t expected Alastair to call Cordelia’s admirer a ‘a borderline stalker bastard’ although he didn’t necessarily disagree – and Alastair, in turn, didn’t seem to mind Lucie’s never-ending stream of questions. It was pleasant and Thomas found himself content to listen to their conversation and watch as Alastair expertly crafted both their drinks in what seemed like no time at all.</p>
<p>“Won’t you sit with us?” Lucie asked as Alastair handed her a large porcelain cup carefully. Thomas could see that it was full to the brim with a creamy green liquid and that somehow Alastair had managed to craft a leaf surrounded by looping lines in the center of it with the steamed milk. “There’s no one else here,” Lucie added, a bit of needling in her voice, when Alastair hadn’t responded.</p>
<p>“I suppose I could for a bit,” Alastair conceded as he handed Thomas his own porcelain cup. Thomas was inordinately pleased to see that his own drink had been decorated with a leaf as well. “Let me just get myself a drink.” Lucie and Thomas waited as Alastair poured himself a cup of black coffee, added just a bit of sugar to it before moving back out from behind the counter. Thomas was half-tempted to ask if Alastair would get in  trouble for taking three drinks but, as the other man seemed completely unconcerned as he carefully held the cup in his hand, he decided to let it go. Surely Alastair didn’t need to be pressed about the policies of the store he worked at.</p>
<p>They sat at a table nearest the counter so that Alastair would be able to quickly get up if anyone else came in and Thomas had to admit, sitting around and chatting with Lucie and Alastair – well, mostly listening to the chatting in all honestly – was a far better way to spend his evening than he had expected. Topics shifted rapidly; one moment they were discussing their studies – Alastair was double majoring in business and, much to Thomas’s surprise and quiet pleasure, music. He remembered Alastair mentioning the piano once, offhandedly, but he hadn’t realized Alastair was that devoted to it.</p>
<p>He was also minoring in ancient Middle Eastern Literature which, as someone who had begun studying Farsi on a whim, intrigued Thomas and they spoke for some time about their favorite stories. Lucie, a story-teller at heart, contributed a deal more than Thomas could, with some of her favorite stories Cordelia had shared with her when they were children. Talking about books had led to discussing Lucie’s major and both Thomas and Alastair were greatly entertained by her spirited synopsis of her latest story, a Gothic-esque horror novella about a Victorian ghost who haunted his old family manor, only visible to his mother and sister. That eventually gave way to talking about horror stories and movies – Thomas himself was not a fan of scary stories but it seemed that Alastair and Lucie both shared a relish for them.</p>
<p>After a rather graphic synopsis of the latest ghostly blockbuster, Thomas himself changed the subject back to school, pointedly ignoring the way Alastair seemed to smirk knowingly at him even as his cheeks tinged pink. The subjects of their conversation quickly became a blur, as seconds, minutes and hours flew by. No one else came into the shop and Alastair only got up once, offering Lucie and Thomas refills of their drinks – Thomas was now pretty sure the man was outright stealing but he couldn’t quite bring himself to care, especially when Alastair came back to the table with fresh drinks as well as several delicious looking pastries he swore he’d have to throw out at the end of the night anyway.</p>
<p>Before any of them knew it, the night had passed entirely and it was with a pronounced sigh that Alastair announced he would have to kick the two of them out for closing. Thomas had, of course, immediately offered to help Alastair clean up the store and after a bit of back and forth in which Alastair adamantly refused, Thomas adamantly insisted and Lucie adamantly stayed out of the argument, Alastair finally agreed to let them help as payment for the free drinks and food. And so Thomas worked on wiping down tables and putting up chairs as Lucie methodically swept and mopped the wooden floor after him and Alastair cleaned the machines and carefully cleared away the unsold pastries. True to his word, Alastair deposited the vast majority of the sweets into large paper bags for disposal but, rather than throw them away, he handed one each to Lucie and Thomas.</p>
<p>“I’m technically supposed to throw them out, but the owner doesn’t really care if we take them home instead.” Alastair explained at Thomas’s questioning look. Thomas wasn’t sure if he really believed him, but it was hard to resist pastries and even harder to resist the man offering them to him and so he took his bag with a soft word of thanks.</p>
<p>Not long after that, Alastair rushed them out the door – he could get away with having them in for the cleanup, but there was no way he wouldn’t get in trouble for counting the register or the safe in front of nonworkers.</p>
<p>“It was lovely seeing you, Alastair!” Lucie called over her shoulder as he more or less pushed them out of the door.</p>
<p>“This wasn’t terrible,” he replied, sparking a surprised laugh from Thomas.</p>
<p>“Have a good night!” Thomas told him softly, stopping just outside the doorway to have one final look at the other man as Lucie proceeded out around him. He was rewarded with a small smile.</p>
<p>“Good night, Thomas.” Alastair told him, his voice a velvety whisper that sent a round of shivers down Thomas’s back. “Now get out, <em>honestly.” </em>He added, voice back to its crisp tone as he reached up to shove lightly at Thomas’s shoulder. Thomas left willingly enough, taking just a moment to look back and see Alastair still at the door, watching Thomas. The other man gave him a brief smile as he locked the door before turning away and back to the register.</p>
<p>“Goodness Thomas, you should at least treat him for dinner before trying to undress him with your eyes.” Lucie’s cheerful voice, appearing out of nowhere, solidly shocked Thomas and he couldn’t help but jump slightly before looking down and spotting Lucie just right of him. That was one drawback of being so tall – it was sometimes far too easy to lose track of his shorter friends. Particularly when he was also so tragically easily distracted by beautiful men.</p>
<p>“I don’t know what you mean,” he said immediately, his face flaming up in an obvious contradiction to his words. Lucie just quirked her eyebrows.</p>
<p>“You’re an awful liar, Thomas.” She told him, her voice still oddly cheerful and her smile bright and far, far too knowing. Thomas’s cheeks reddened despite himself.</p>
<p>“Let’s just get you home,” he said quickly, beginning to walk away from the café with broad, purposeful steps. He couldn’t quite outrun Lucie’s knowing little laugh as she began following him, practically jogging to try and keep in step, but at least she seemed content to not antagonize him any further.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until they were nearly to Lucie’s dorm – Thomas always walked her all the way to the door and then waited until she was safely inside when they were together because no one could be too careful – that they both remembered.</p>
<p>“We didn’t work on my project!” Lucie groaned, turning dramatically to face Thomas. Perhaps it was the lighting – everything always looked more pronounced in the yellow light of the metal lampposts around campus – but she looked positively pitiful as she cast desperate, pleading eyes onto Thomas. Thomas should’ve been able to resist – he should have been able to build an immunity to the magic that was the Herondale pout, but he hadn’t. So, instead of wishing her a goodnight and carrying on back to his apartment, he gave a deep sigh.</p>
<p>“I’ll put on the kettle for tea,” he said, gesturing for Lucie to lead the way into her dorm. He didn’t really need sleep anyway.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Thomas had held the same weekday schedule since his first day of classes in the States: wake up, have a quick breakfast, go to his morning lessons – why he thought an eight o’clock Monday and Wednesday class and a nine thirty Tuesday and Thursday class had been a good idea, he had no idea but there he was, suffering at ungodly hours four days a week – go to the library, have lunch with Lucie or Anna or – sometimes, rarely – a friendly classmate – more classes, work at the library, then to the gym for a quick workout, shower, dinner, more studying, a quick call to his mom and dad at least twice a week to reassure them he was still alive and enjoying himself, bed. It was the same schedule he’d followed for months – it wasn’t the most exciting schedule but it worked for him and he was comfortable. He liked schedules and it generally took a lot for him to willingly change his plans.</p>
<p>Which was probably why it came as such a surprise to everyone when they found out he had foregone studying in his apartment and started to spend most of his evenings in the Hideout. He hadn’t meant to do it, not really, but the day after practically pulling an all-nighter at Lucie’s dorm and crashing on the way too-small school provided couch in her dorm’s tiny communal living room, he had found himself crashing horribly by the time his Saturday shift at the library had ended at six o-clock and, after despairing at the sight of the horrendous line outside the campus’s Starbucks – it was even packed on Saturdays this close to exams -  had stumbled into the Hideout for a quick pick-me-up before going home to work on an essay outline.</p>
<p>He hadn’t even considered that Alastair might have been working the Saturday closing shift but there he had been in all his beautiful glory, handing a steaming paper cup of coffee to a kindly looking professor. Alastair had taken one look at the half-dead Thomas and had given him the strongest, most caffeinated tea in the entire shop without question. Thomas had drunk it gratefully and, upon feeling a bit more like a human, had begun chatting with Alastair.</p>
<p>He hadn’t stayed long that day – he really did have a lot to do himself -  but he had learned that Alastair worked only evening shifts Wednesday through Saturday, unless he was covering for someone else as he had been the first day Thomas had seen him. He had also learned that Alastair purposely chose the closing shifts – 6-10:30 on weekdays when the shop closed at ten and 7-1:30 on weekends when the shop closed at one – because there was less people to annoy Alastair with their ridiculous coffee orders and general assholery (his word, not Thomas’s). Thomas hadn’t meant to use the information, hadn’t even been sure why Alastair had offered it up, but the following Wednesday he had found himself restless and unable to focus in his apartment and when he’d decided to go for a quick walk to clear his mind, his feet had led him to the Hideout and to Alastair.</p>
<p>Then the next day, when Thomas had gotten feedback from his professor on his essay outline and had decided to treat himself to a celebratory hot chocolate and dessert for “magnificent insight!”, he had already been halfway to the Hideout before remembering he usually celebrated with a slightly stale slice of pre-packaged cake from the school’s tiny grocery store and at that point, there had simply been no reason to turn back. It had proven to be an excellent decision when Alastair not only served Thomas the most delicious fruit tart he’d had in the States but also convinced him to try the triple hot chocolate that quickly became Thomas’s new favorite.</p>
<p>By Friday, Thomas didn’t even bother with any pretense. He simply showed up with his backpack in tow and spent the entire evening trading horror stories about classes and work with Alastair over hot chocolates and coffees until closing came upon them once more. He hadn’t even blushed once, that time, and when he’d offered to stay and walk Alastair home after the safe was counted, Alastair had accepted with a small, knowing smirk.</p>
<p>They fell into a rhythm then – Thomas showed up every evening just after Alastair’s shift started, often with his own school work or a book he was reading in tow, and hung out until close, talking with Alastair as he went through cleaning tables and checking temperatures on food, reading and working when Alastair was working with customers or had to go in the back to work on something. And every night, after the floor had all been swept and the money had all been counted in the register – Alastair had taken to counting it in the back room with the safe so Thomas didn’t have to wait outside in the cold – Thomas walked Alastair back to his apartment.</p>
<p>That was when they were at their most honest, that fifteen-minute walk from the café to Alastair’s home. That was when Thomas shared what it had been like, to have to bury his older sister Barbara after she lost her fight to some strange rare disease the doctors still didn’t quite understand the summer before he’d started uni. How her death motivated him to go into pre-med so that he could maybe one day prevent the same tragedy from falling onto someone else’s family. It was when Alastair, in turn, explained how empty the house had felt when his mother had finally had enough and gave his father the ultimatum of the family or the drink, back when she was pregnant with Alastair’s youngest sibling. How weird it had felt when his father finally returned home, sober and contrite for the first time in many years – how that weirdness had ultimately been what caused him to jump at the opportunity to go to school so far away from home. It was when Thomas, in turn, shared how odd it was to still be treated as a delicate, sickly child by his family and how wanting to branch away from that is what made him decide to study abroad for a year.</p>
<p>It was when, after a particularly long day with a particularly awful customer, Alastair described what it was like being a person of color both in America and back home. How the taunts and ridicule he’d endured back in secondary school had made him give up speaking his mother’s language in public for nearly two years. Thomas hadn’t really known what to say that evening, but his heartfelt and emphatic “that’s awful, I’m so sorry,” seemed to have been enough, judging from the way Alastair’s shoulders had lifted as though just the slightest weight had been taken from them.</p>
<p>It wasn’t all awful things in that fifteen-minute walk. Thomas shared his songs – lyrics he’d kept secret in the most hidden parts of himself – with Alastair and Alastair, in turn, recited to Thomas the poems and stories he’d learned from his mother and knew by heart just by sheer repetition. Alastair and Thomas sometimes spoke in Farsi, to give Thomas practice, and the other man only laughed a little when Thomas mixed his words up. They talked about their hopes and dreams – what differences they wanted to make when they were done with school.</p>
<p>They shared good stories about their families – how Alastair doted on baby Eliot who was quickly leaving toddlerhood, how proud he was of Cordelia and how much she was absolutely crushing her studies while also volunteering at any and every shelter and soup kitchen that would have her. He talked about how much love and devotion his mother gave him, how he hoped to make her proud. Thomas talked about his baby niece, how small and delicate she had felt when he’d held her for the first-time right before coming to the States, how big she’d gotten in pictures her mother Eugenia sent. He talked about his own mother, what it was like to have a mother from a working-class background and how she’d ensured her children carried the same work ethic she had but also how she shared kindness and love.</p>
<p>He told Alastair how they’d both cried when Thomas had come out while his father had just poured them all a drink and told Thomas how proud he was of him. Alastair confided in him that he had feared coming out to his mother and how much she had surprised him by simply taking his hand – still shaking with terror – before telling him she loved every bit of him, no matter what. How his mother and Cordelia – who had learned after accidently walking in on him and an old boyfriend a few months before he told their mother – had baked him a massive rainbow cake the next day to celebrate.</p>
<p>They shared gifts, sometimes, as well. Well, mainly Thomas shared gifts – little things mostly, like a bar of Alastair’s favorite dark chocolate that could only be found at the international market across town or a small cat-shaped squishy that he’d bought on a whim because it reminded him of the other man. Small things to thank him for the free drinks and pastries Alastair shared with him almost every night. And they shared books with each other – anthologies of poems, short stories and novels, things that made them think of each other.</p>
<p>Thomas loved every minute he spent with Alastair in the small café but he had to admit, their stolen fifteen minutes together in the dead of night were quickly becoming his most cherished memories.</p>
<p>Months passed like this before Thomas knew it. Midterms came and went and finals had been fast approaching in the stolen nights he shared with Alastair. And in all that time, he never realized one important lapse of his own.</p>
<p>He had never told Lucie and Anna what he was doing. He hadn’t meant to keep it a secret, he just never had a good time to tell them and he’d agreed to spend just enough time with them when they asked that they never thought to question what he was doing all those other days of the week when he was with Alastair. A fact that were sure to take as a positively unforgiveable slight when it all came to a head on a beautiful Spring evening the last week of classes.</p>
<p>Thomas had just finished a rather grueling shift at the library – so many students were fighting to get their hands on last minute resources for papers and spare copies of textbooks they weren’t able to buy or download that Thomas had hardly been able to have a minute to himself from the moment he’d clocked in to the moment his replacement – a sweet, shy first year boy – had come in. He was overloaded on people, stress, and his own work and he had been highly considering skipping the gym in favor of an early dinner before heading to the Hideout for studying but before he had even made his way out of the library, Anna was calling him and he knew better than to ignore her.</p>
<p>“Hey, me and Lucie are heading to that coffee shop I told you about months ago to study together. You interested?” His cousin didn’t even wait for him to greet her, merely started speaking the moment he accepted her call.</p>
<p>It was pretty much exactly the plan Thomas had anyway but he still paused. Studying around Alastair was easy because whenever it was a busy time of the semester, he was allowed to work on his own studies when there was no other customers and Alastair was a quiet, devoted studier just like Thomas was. They had spent many busy weeknights studying together in between customers with only the softly playing radio and the low murmurs of the other patrons to break the silence. Lucie and Anna, although intelligent and studious in their own right, could never be considered quiet and Thomas knew studying together with them would inevitably end up with him getting sucked into whatever conversation they were having and getting very little work done. But if he refused and said he was studying at home, he wouldn’t be able to see Alastair and, embarrassed as he would be to admit it aloud, being able to see the other man was one of the few things keeping him from going off the deep end of final exam jitters.</p>
<p>Plus Alastair, who had given Thomas his number after the first week of Thomas walking him home every possible evening, had already messaged him that he’d gotten the morning shift bakers convinced to bake Thomas’s absolute favorite fruit tart and he had really been looking forward to that all day.</p>
<p>“Thomas?” Anna’s voice, tinny from the other end, prompted him out of his thoughts and he realized with a slight jolt that he had been taking too long to answer. “You aren’t planning on hiding out in your apartment until finals are over again, are you? I am not afraid to drag you from there and out into the real world.”</p>
<p>An image of Anna doing just that rose unbidden into Thomas’s mind and he hastily and unthinkingly responded, “No! No, I’ll come! I just got to grab some dinner first.”</p>
<p>“Don’t bother. Me and Lucie packed a bunch of snacks.”</p>
<p>“You’re bringing snacks into a coffee shop?” Thomas asked, finally leaving the library after one too many harsh stares from people sitting in the entrance, unable to get spots in the quieter sections of the library proper.</p>
<p>“Yes, I’ve done it a few times with my other friends. I’ve never had a problem with it before, as long as we buy something from the shop too.” Thomas wasn’t sure if that was quite true but he also knew that Anna was going to do what she wanted and mooching off his cousin’s snacks meant he didn’t have to stop at the school dining hall for a cheaply made but somehow grossly overpriced meal.</p>
<p>“Alright, I’ll head there now.” He told her, already making his way off campus.</p>
<p>“Wonderful! Me and Lucie are almost there, we’ll snag a table.” Anna hung up just as abruptly as she had begun speaking and Thomas just shook his head slightly as he slid his phone back into his pants and moved off the sidewalk so that a couple with a stroller could make it passed him. Thomas was so used to making the trek to the Hideout at this point that his feet could take him to the shop in his sleep and so he allowed his mind to wander as he walked. He had three finals to study for and a fifteen-page paper that he still had to write half of. He had been planning on working on the paper, but now with his plans changed, he knew studying for his first exam for his human physiology class would be a better, more productive bet.</p>
<p>So engrossed in internally going over the specific machinations of the respiratory system, Thomas didn’t once consider two glaring facts: that this would be the first time Anna would be present to see him with Alastair ever and that he had yet to tell Anna and Lucie about him hanging out with Alastair regularly.</p>
<p>He would regret both these oversights in two hours’ time.</p>
<p>But he didn’t yet realize these, and so it was with no thought to an imminent death by embarrassment that Thomas slid into the Hideout, letting the light chiming that always accompanied the opening of the door rouse him from his internal review of the lungs. It didn’t take much to spot Lucie and Anna – they had commandeered one of the larger tables by the large windows and their workspace was already flooded with a strange hodgepodge of books, British snacks they must have gotten from the international food market, laptops, water bottles, and a little pile of stress-relief toys that must have been Lucie’s. They had been considerate though, and the last third of the large table had been left untouched for Thomas’s own things.</p>
<p>“We’ve already ordered,” Lucie told him once he’d gotten close enough to the table, not even bothering to look up from her laptop. Thomas could see three different word documents open on her screen, all minimized to fit against each other and a web browser open to the google search “popular poisons of the Victorian Era.’ Thomas wasn’t sure if she was working on finishing her Creative Writing Project – she had decided to turn her for-fun short story about the tragic Victorian boy into her semester project and Thomas was only a little bitter still at that wasted all-nighter - or planning a vintage murder and deliberately decided not to ask. He would need plausible deniability if the police came around asking pointed questions about nightshade or belladonna.</p>
<p>Setting his bag down next to the empty chair by Lucie, Thomas glanced up at the counter. Alastair’s shift didn’t start for another hour and a half, so Thomas wasn’t surprised to see the girl with pastel pink hair taking orders behind the counter. He had seen her many times before – she often hung around a little after her shift on Thursdays to chat with Alastair -  and he knew she was perfectly nice, but there was something about getting a drink from someone other than Alastair that just didn’t feel right, so instead of going up to wait in the small line, Thomas sat down and began pulling things from his bag.</p>
<p>“You’re not going to order anything?” Anna asked, looking up from where she had been buried in her copy of Virginia Woolf’s <em>Orlando. </em></p>
<p>“I’m going to wait a bit.” Thomas answered, taking extra care in starting up his laptop to avoid Anna’s inquisitive stare. He really didn’t want to explain to her that he had a preferred barista – it sounded horribly snobbish even in his own head. “Don’t really want anything yet.” It was a testament to Anna’s concentration on her book that she didn’t ask any follow up questions and it was with equal amounts of gratitude and slight embarrassment that Thomas volunteered to pick up the women’s drinks when Lucie’s name was called.</p>
<p>“You’re early!” The girl with pink hair said, offering him a bright, knowing smile as she passed over the two drinks – one matcha latte for Lucie and what appeared to be one iced black coffee for Anna, who was obviously a monster. Thomas flushed lightly as he took the proffered drinks.</p>
<p>“Yes. My friends wanted to study together,” how awkward was it that Thomas came often enough that Alastair’s coworkers knew his habits?</p>
<p>“Well, Alastair’s coming in early today – he’s covering the last half hour of my shift for me – so you won’t have to wait too long for your boyfriend,” before Thomas could even think to correct her, the girl gave him another smile and turned back to the coffee machines, hands already pulling out a new metal cup to pour the next batch of milk into.</p>
<p>Blushing furiously despite himself and wondering if he should’ve corrected the girl immediately – what if her assumptions got back to Alastair and the other man was angry Thomas didn’t set her straight? - Thomas made his way back to the table and set the drinks down next to their respective owners. Anna immediately grabbed her drink and took a long gulp of it.</p>
<p>Trying to latch onto something other than the barista’s words – and, more importantly, what Alastair’s reaction would have been had he heard it – Thomas voiced the first thought that came to his mind watching his cousin drink the icy monstrosity. “How on earth can you drink <em>that</em>?”</p>
<p>Anna glanced up at him, her hand still tightly clenching the glass as though it was a lifeline, then down at her drink. “What about it? It’s just coffee.”</p>
<p>“Drinking plain black coffee over ice seems like a sort of torture,” Thomas told her. Anna shot him a look that told him quite clearly that she knew he was acting strange.</p>
<p>“It’s got caramel syrup in it too,” She answered him, before taking another large swallow.</p>
<p>“Does the caramel actually sweeten it all that much?” That was Lucie asking, looking up from where she had been typing away at her computer curiously.</p>
<p>Anna shrugged. “It does when you ask for three shots if it.” She took another drink, blue eyes boring into Thomas over the glass. “Want to talk about why you’re acting weird?” She added casually, placing her glass down and leaning over so that her face was nearly in Thomas’s space. Thomas cringed and automatically leaned back – it had been years since Anna had been bigger than him but childhood memories of Anna physically forcing him to answer her made it so that she was still rather intimidating. Lucie was looking up completely from her computer now; evidently Thomas’s behavior was more interesting than old poisons.</p>
<p>Thomas felt himself blush and his eyes darted to the pink-haired woman before he could stop himself. Anna followed his gaze. “Did the barista flirt with you too?” She asked, turning back to her cousin with an amused smirk on her face. Thomas’s blush darkened even more and he opened his mouth to deny it - Anna was liable to do something embarrassing if he let her think the woman had been flirting with him – but Lucie spoke up before he could.</p>
<p>“What do you mean ‘too’?” Lucie asked. “I ordered our drinks. When did the barista flirt with you?”</p>
<p>“She didn’t flirt with <em>me</em>,” Anna answered with the air of someone long-suffering, “although I wouldn’t mind if she did,” she added, taking a moment to give the woman another appreciative look.</p>
<p>“You have a girlfriend,” Thomas felt inclined to point out. Although, when he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Anna’s latest friend, a rather pretty dark-haired woman from Mexico City whose name Thomas had yet to be told, around.</p>
<p>“Yasmin’s decided to give the boy her mother likes a chance,” Anna told him with a dismissive wave of her hand. Thomas couldn’t tell if her nonchalance was feigned or if she didn’t really care that she’d been left for someone else, “which means I’m free to flirt with whatever beautiful woman I see. Unfortunately, however, it seems that I am the only one at this table who hasn’t caught that woman’s attention.”</p>
<p>“Do you really think she was flirting with me?” Lucie asked and Anna nodded.</p>
<p>“Most definitely, babe.”</p>
<p>“How nice!” Lucie said and she did indeed sound rather pleased. Lucie, as much as she had no interest in girls and rarely found a boy she liked enough to date, absolutely loved being flirted with. She always complained it didn’t happen nearly enough because most people found her cute rather than beautiful or sexy but Thomas privately thought that Lucie was just always too enraptured in a book or in one of her friend’s lives to notice when she was being flirted with. He’d born witness to at least five different men walk away disappointed when Lucie sweetly declined them getting her a drink before remarking on how polite they were.</p>
<p>“For you two, perhaps. I find it borderline tragic that, out of all the people at this table, she’s flirted with the two incapable of being interested in her,” Anna responded, adopting a faux-sad tone.</p>
<p>“She didn’t flirt with me,” Thomas corrected before the entire conversation could completely derail. He regretted it the moment the words left his mouth, however, as he realized that denying Anna’s assumption meant that she was open to making more.</p>
<p>“Oh? Did she say something rude, then?” It was amazing how quickly Anna’s tone could change. One minute she was lamenting over the fact that someone hadn’t flirted with her, the next she was ready to fight them, if she needed to. It was an endearing albeit annoying trait that many people in their family seemed to possess.</p>
<p>“No, of course not! She’s quite nice.” Thomas quickly said. He really didn’t need Anna to confront the poor barista for nonexistent slights. “It’s really nothing! I’m just worried about my finals and I really need to study.” He gestured to his laptop, open and waiting for him to log in. Anna’s eyes were narrowed with suspicion but, as much as she could be a noisy and interfering person, she also knew when to let things lie and stop pushing and so it was only with a final suspicious look at Thomas that she returned to her book. Lucie, who had virtually no idea how to let things go, looked as though she wanted to continue the conversation but Thomas quickly turned to his laptop and after a moment Lucie returned to her work as well.</p>
<p>The peace and quiet, as sweet as it was, lasted only about twenty minutes before Lucie broke it by sharing, “did you know that the Victorians used the term ‘gay woman’ to refer to sex workers?” And then Anna and Lucie were off, first talking about all the issues in the Victorian era – Anna and Lucie both knew quite a deal more about it than Thomas did and it was fairly easy to tune out – before switching to talking about the unfair but historic stigma of sex work. This morphed – somehow, Thomas really was trying hard to pay attention to his work and not the conversation – into a conversation about the stigma on professions considered “women’s work.”</p>
<p>Thomas lost the conversation after that point, finally giving in and pulling out headphones to help drown out Anna and Lucie’s conversation. It wasn’t that he didn’t have an interest in the conversation – it was that Thomas simply knew that he would easily get sucked into the discussion if he allowed himself and hours could go before it reached any definitive stopping point. And Thomas really couldn’t afford to let that much time slip from him.</p>
<p>His headphone use didn’t even faze Lucie and Anna – they were quite accustomed to Thomas quietly pulling them out during study sessions when he really needed to focus – and their conversation undoubtedly continued as Thomas tuned it out with his favorite studying playlist from Spotify.</p>
<p>Thomas was able to get a half an hour of good studying before his concentration was once more broken, this time by a soft tap on his shoulder. He almost ignored it – Lucie and Anna had probably delved into some quasi-argument and wanted a tiebreaker – but then whoever it was tapped him again and when Thomas looked up, ready to tell Lucie and Anna they were both right, he realized that both women had gone quiet and were staring rather unashamedly at someone just over Thomas’s shoulder. Thomas, feeling a fair bit of dread at their reaction, pulled off his headphones and turned.</p>
<p>Alastair, dressed in his usual black and white uniform and looking as beautiful as usual, was standing behind him. “You’re here early,” he said simply the moment Thomas’s eyes were on his. Thomas felt his cheeks heat up as he felt both Anna and Lucie’s eyes turn to him, boring holes into his back. It had been a good while since he’d felt embarrassed in front of Alastair – there was hardly much to hide after spending at least four nights a week for months with the other man -  but he hadn’t bothered to cast his voice low and Thomas knew that there would be a million questions for him the moment Alastair left the table.</p>
<p>“Yeah, Anna and Lucie wanted me to meet with them to study together,” Thomas responded, hoping his voice sounded more casual to Alastair than it did to himself. Alastair glanced at Anna and Lucie and Thomas sent a silent but fervent prayer that they weren’t doing anything embarrassing before also turning to look at his two friends.</p>
<p>“Hey Alastair!” Lucie said, her voice sounding a little too pleased even to Thomas’s ears and her smile just a hair too wide to be just friendly.</p>
<p>“Hello Lucie,” Alastair dutifully replied before turning to Anna. “I don’t believe we’ve met, but you must be Anna?” Alastair’s voice was more statement than question as he held out a hand for Anna to shake.</p>
<p>“That’s me,” Anna responded simply, an assessing look in her blue eyes that Thomas didn’t like one bit. “How do you know Thomas and Lucie?” She asked as she reached out to take to take Alastair’s hand and give it a perfunctory shake. Her question was innocent enough but there was an emphasis on Thomas’s name that sent warning bells ringing all through his head.</p>
<p>“Lucie’s friends with my sister Cordelia. I met Thomas visiting London with my family when we were younger.” Alastair’s answers were brusque but complete and Thomas didn’t hear the usual bit of sardonic undertone that usually flavored Alastair’s responses to near strangers asking personal questions. He was trying to be polite then.</p>
<p>“Cordelia… Carstairs?” Anna asked and there was definitely something in her tone then. The warning bells had turned to sirens and Thomas immediately started wondering how he could get the two apart. “You’re Alastair Carstairs?”</p>
<p>“That is how surnames tend to work between siblings, yes.” Anna didn’t even acknowledge Alastair’s rudeness although Lucie let out a surprised giggle. She just turned to look at Thomas, briefly, a small smirk on her lips, before returning to Alastair. The casual and slow up-and-down look she gave him made Thomas’ cheeks warm uncomfortably but Alastair seemed hardly fazed.</p>
<p>“How interesting.” <em>What</em> was interesting? Thomas knew she definitely wasn’t talking about surnames.</p>
<p>“Hardly,” Alastair told her, calm as ever. Then he looked down at Thomas and the mess of schoolwork strewn across the table. “You haven’t gotten your hot chocolate, yet?” Alastair’s gaze jumped from the table back to Thomas and he shook his head automatically. “I’ll bring you a triple chocolate, then.” And before Thomas or either of the girls could say anything more, Alastair clapped a hand onto Thomas’ shoulder and gave it a gentle, brief squeeze before walking off to the front of the store where the pink-haired woman was waiting to be relieved.</p>
<p>“He knows your order?” Lucie’s voice, sounding far too delighted, roused Thomas from the sudden shock of Alastair’s hand on his shoulder. Alastair didn't often touch Thomas – he wasn’t a casual-touch kind of man and Thomas would never purposely push someone out of their comfort zone – so the sudden feel of Alastair’s thin, graceful fingers on his shoulder had sent pleasant sparks down Thomas’s entire body. He barely resisted the urge to brush his own fingers across the spot Alastair had touched as he turned to Lucie and Anna.</p>
<p>They were staring at him openly, Lucie smiling brightly and Anna smirking suspiciously. Thomas didn’t know which was worse. “Sorry?” He had heard Lucie but not quite caught her question. Lucie’s smile seemed to widen.</p>
<p>“Alastair knows your order!” This time her words came out as a statement rather than a question and Thomas felt himself blushing furiously.</p>
<p>“Well, I order pretty much the same thing every time.” He immediately deflected although that wasn’t strictly true. Thomas often switched between the various hot chocolates the Hideout had, although the Spiced Hot Chocolate and the Triple were still his favorites, and sometimes went for tea on long nights or whenever he was too tired to forego caffeine. He wasn’t quite sure how Alastair had guessed that he was going to order a Triple Hot Chocolate but he couldn’t deny the rush of pleasure that came with the thought that the other man knew him so well.</p>
<p>“How often do you come here?” Anna jumped in before Lucie could ask. For a split second, Thomas considered outright lying. But Anna could sniff out a lie better than anyone else Thomas knew, barring parents, and it would be so much worse for him if she caught him out in the middle of a lie. Especially when she could go over and just ask Alastair.</p>
<p>“Fairly often.” Thomas admitted finally. “The hot chocolate is really quite good.”</p>
<p>“Oh, it’s the hot chocolate you come for?” Anna asked, quirking her eyebrow up in frank disbelief. Thomas was pretty sure he was beginning to resemble a tomato with how red his cheeks were becoming. “You sure it isn’t the <em>very</em> attractive man you’ve been crushing on since grade six?”</p>
<p>“I haven’t been <em>crushing</em> on him since grade six!”</p>
<p>“You’ve been crushing on him <em>since</em> grade six?” Thomas and Lucie spoke at the same time, Thomas in horrified tones and Lucie delighted. Anna scoffed and then adopted an oddly high-pitched caricature of her cousin.</p>
<p>“’Oh Anna, I wish you could’ve come out to Uncle Will’s today, I met the most interesting boy!’ ‘Anna, do you know anything about the <em>Arabian Nights</em>? Alastair says it was one of his favorite stories, but I’ve never read them in full.’ ‘Anna, Alastair told me-‘” Anna would have continued but Thomas had decided to shut her up in the most time-honored method of them all – he reached over and put a hand over her mouth.</p>
<p>“Alright, okay, I get it. <em>Please</em> stop.” Thomas glanced a panicked look at Alastair – he would have to flee back to London if he had heard even half a word of Anna’s mockery – but the other man must have still been in the back clocking in because the pink-haired woman was still taking orders at the counter. Anna brought Thomas’s attention back to her by licking a wide stripe across his palm. “You’re the <em>worst</em>,”  he told her, pulling his hand away from her mouth and wiping it on her backpack in retaliation. She seemed unfazed.</p>
<p>“So you admit you totally have a gigantic crush on him?” She asked and Thomas inwardly cursed the action of every ancestor they shared that led to them being born in the same generation. Anna was a <em>terror</em>.</p>
<p>“Fine, yes. I may have a <em>slight</em> crush on Alastair. But we’re just <em>friends </em>and I want to continue to be friends with him so please don’t embarrass me.”</p>
<p>“When have we embarrassed you?” Lucie asked, sounding genuinely curious and Thomas went ahead and cursed their parents’ friendship that led to them being friends too, for good measure. Lucie seemed to catch some sort of understanding from the furious expression on his face because she hastily said, “you know what, that’s not important. Why are you guys just friends? He obviously likes you.”</p>
<p>“He does not.” Thomas responded, hoping his tone was final enough that the two women would finally drop your conversation.</p>
<p>“Is he interested in men?” Anna asked immediately.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Thomas admitted. There was no use lying, especially when Alastair was completely and unashamedly open with his sexuality.</p>
<p>“And he knows your favorite order?” Lucie asked and Thomas did not like the little smile on her face.</p>
<p>“Yes, obviously.” He answered with a bit of impatience.</p>
<p>“How often does he come out of his way to talk to you when he’s working?” Anna was leaning back far enough that her chair legs were half in the air as she spoke, looking halfway over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the counter without drawing attention to herself. Thomas knew she was looking at Alastair, who had taken his spot at the register and was taking the orders of a small gaggle of students who had just arrived.</p>
<p>“He says hi to me every time I’m here and he sits with me when he’s not busy.” Thomas regretted the words the moment they were out of his mouth. He knew that Lucie and Anna were both going to take it well out of proportion. True to form, both women had shared a quick look with each other, conversing in that silent way so many girls seemed capable of, before turning to face him fully. Anna even leaned forward again so that the legs of her chair fell back to the ground with an audible clack and Lucie shut her laptop so that all their attention was on Thomas.</p>
<p>“And how often are you here? And be specific, none of that ‘fairly often’ nonsense, please.” Lucie was all business now. Thomas rather wished she’d go back to delighted teasing.</p>
<p>“Every day that he works, if I can make it. But it’s not like that!” He added the last part as the two women shared another significant look. They were reading way too far into this. “We’re both so busy, we don’t really have time to hang out outside of here,” Except, of course, the time Thomas takes to walk him home every night he sees him. And the near constant texting and semi-frequent late-night phone calls when either he or Alastair were having trouble sleeping. And the time Alastair showed up at his apartment on a Saturday morning he knew he was free and dragged him to the museum ‘for some proper artwork.’ But Thomas wasn’t about to admit any of that to Lucie or Anna. It was private and they were just going to interpret wrong, anyway.</p>
<p>“What do you guys talk about, when he’s not busy and sitting with you?” Anna asked once her silent conversation with Lucie had reached some conclusion Thomas would never figure out.</p>
<p>“That’s private.” Thomas said immediately in a resolute tone.</p>
<p>“That means meaningful conversations and not just general chit chat.”  Lucie translated, turning back to look at Anna. Anna nodded in agreement.</p>
<p>“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Anna asked Lucie. Thomas didn’t even have a moment to be grateful that they were done asking him questions because he was far too suspicious of this new development of audible conversation between the two women.</p>
<p>“Most definitely.” Lucie said and a beaming smile was back on her face.</p>
<p>“What <em>exactly</em> are you thinking?” Thomas demanded, not at all keen for this latest development.</p>
<p>It was Anna, smirking as she looked at her cousin, who answered his question. “Alastair does not have a crush on you,” she announced with the air of someone giving very good news. Thomas already knew this – knew that however strongly he felt about Alastair, the only feeling the other man returned was friendship – but he really would rather not have it announced to him in such a direct manner in such a public place mere feet away from the man in question. It was the type of sentence best muttered over a carton of butterscotch ice cream in the dead of night.</p>
<p>“I already <em>said</em> that, thank you so -” Thomas began hotly before getting neatly interrupted by Lucie.</p>
<p>“-because it’s a bit weird to say someone has a crush on who they’re dating.”</p>
<p>“-very much, really appreciate – wait, <em>what</em>?” It took an admittedly too long of time for Lucie’s words to sink in and when they did, Thomas found they didn’t make very much sense. He knew Lucie and Anna would both weird way too far into his and Alastair’s actions but to go so far as to think they were actually <em>dating</em>? It was pure ridiculousness. Even if it sent a wave of warmth throughout his entire body.</p>
<p>“You’re dating.” Anna repeated simply, her wide smirk showcasing just how much she was enjoying the shocked look on his face.</p>
<p>“And just how did you come to that <em>brilliant</em> conclusion?” He demanded.</p>
<p>Before either woman could answer, a voice from above them drawled “I would also very much like to know.” Thomas flinched at the familiar voice and – very reluctantly – forced himself to look up at the figure standing behind his cousin just as Anna and Lucie did. Alastair was standing there, steaming cup of hot chocolate in hand, with an impassive look on his face. A quick glance towards the register revealed that the line at the counter had disappeared – Alastair had obviously finished up with all the remaining customers and come over with Thomas’ drink. The trio had simply been too distracted to notice his approach.</p>
<p>Thomas had never considered himself a very dramatic person but, at that very moment, he wanted nothing more than for the earth to swallow him up where he sat and never spit him back out. He was already contemplating if he had enough money in his bank account to buy a direct flight back to London or if he would need multiple layovers when Alastair set the hot chocolate in front of him with an audible thud before sitting in the empty chair next to Anna. He seemed completely at ease as he crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in his chair, dark eyes carefully roving over all three of their faces.</p>
<p>Thomas, on the other hand, was on the verge of full on panicking, his face absolutely red. Lucie’s eyes were wide as saucers, her hand over her mouth in utter shock. Anna, however, was cool as ever as she turned slightly to better face Alastair, a small smirk on her face. Before she could say anything – and very possibly ruin every chance he had of salvaging his friendship with Alastair – Thomas jumped in.</p>
<p>“I’m so sorry Alastair. Lucie and Anna have a problem with boundaries and reading too far into things,” Thomas spared a moment to glare pointedly at both women before looking at Alastair. “I’ve been trying to tell them we’re friends –“</p>
<p>“Oh, I don’t think they’re reading too far at all. They certainly read much better than you at any rate,” Alastair cut in far too casually. Thomas’s words died on his tongue as he stared, rather dumbfounded at the other man. What on earth did he mean by <em>that</em>? Alastair’s lips seemed to twitch slightly, betraying his amusement, and he turned to Anna before Thomas could even begin to decipher what <em>that</em> meant.</p>
<p>“Please, do go on and explain how you came to that conclusion. Slowly, so Thomas can understand.” Anna laughed at that and Thomas felt rather like he was missing a major part of what was going on.</p>
<p>“I don’t – are you saying we’re <em>dating</em>?” Thomas blurted out, drawing Alastair’s attention back to him before Anna could fully respond. Alastair looked at him and there was definitely amusement on his face, mixed with an emotion Thomas couldn’t quite place but looked somewhat akin to the fond exasperation he sometimes wore when relating some heartfelt but ridiculous scheme of his sister’s.</p>
<p>“Of course not – dating requires two or more people who know what’s going on. I’m saying we <em>could</em> be if you weren’t so painfully oblivious.” He stated calmly, as though he hadn’t just reshaped Thomas’ entire world view with just one sentence.  Thomas felt like the ground beneath him had suddenly been pulled out and he knew, distantly, he must look a fool with his mouth wide in surprise.</p>
<p>Alastair, blessed Alastair who was equal parts rude and kind, lovely and cruel, seemed to be the first to take pity on him – Lucie was too busy hiding a smile behind her hands and Anna was outright laughing. He uncrossed his legs and stood, reaching one hand across the table towards Thomas. “Come, we obviously have some things to talk about.” Thomas, still rather too stunned to speak, took Alastair’s hand and let the other man haul him up out of his seat. He was surprisingly strong, Alastair, and his grip was firm as he tugged Thomas out of his chair. “Give us a minute, won’t you?” Alastair addressed Anna and Lucie as he turned towards the counter, still tightly holding on to Thomas’s hand. “And yell if anyone new comes in.”  </p>
<p>Alastair led Thomas behind the counter and into the door to the side that Thomas had watched him disappear into hundreds of times. So stunned at the sudden change in events, Thomas could hardly appreciate the warmth of Alastair’s fingers curled around his own although he definitely missed it when Alastair dropped his hand as he turned towards him before the door had fully closed behind them. As Thomas had thought, the door had led into a storage room filled to the brim with shelves of neatly stacked supplies and a sizeable industrial refrigerator. There was another door off to the side that Thomas assumed must have led into the office where Alastair counted the safe every night. The room was clean but plain, with only a few posters about sanitation and health as well as a whiteboard neatly filled in with a color-coded schedule. Thomas should have expected the scarcity in decoration - it was just a storage room after all. Still, he found himself fervently wishing there were more things around to look at. Anything even remotely eye-catching, something that could keep him from staring at –</p>
<p>“Thomas.” Alastair’s voice was firm, almost grave in its seriousness and Thomas’s eyes immediately fell onto the smaller man despite his best efforts. Alastair was staring at him with solemn eyes, completely at odds with the almost playful air he’d had with Anna. He was as beautiful as the day Thomas had first walked into the Hideout but now the striking sharpness of his features were softened with familiarity. Thomas knew how Alastair’s eyes narrowed as he scowled at a rude customer but he’d also seen the gentleness in his gaze when he showed Thomas pictures of his baby brother. He’d seen the way he jutted his chin in indignation but he’d also seen him push it back against his neck to imitate his least favorite professor who was nearing ninety and had the hanging jowls to prove it. He’d seen his full lips narrowed into a severe frown, pushed out in a rather adorable pout, and curved into a brilliant smile. Genetics had made Alastair unattainably beautiful; familiarity had made him so breathtaking it nearly hurt to look at him sometimes. When Alastair was intent like this, his beauty was so intense it was like staring into the sun on a cloudless day.</p>
<p>Thomas didn’t want to look away though. He never wanted to look away.</p>
<p>“Alastair,” he responded simply, his voice far more calm than he had expected it to be, far more calm than he really felt, with his chest still thumping in his chest to a staccato beat. There must have been something in his voice that Alastair caught on to, because his lips twitched slightly into a smile.  </p>
<p>“Your cousins sure are something.” Was what he chose to say first. Anna and Lucie were the absolute last people he wanted to talk about – he didn’t even know yet whether he was going to end this day angry at them or grateful – but there was something comforting in grasping onto a known territory after being left afloat in all new waters that Thomas appreciated. So he took the easy bait.</p>
<p>“Technically, only Anna is related to me. But yeah, they are a lot.”</p>
<p>“Smart, though,” Alastair said, and this time there was something close to the teasing tone back in his voice as he looked up at Thomas, the flicker of a smile not quite gone from his face. Thomas knew Alastair was testing the waters, letting him decide what to do and how to direct the conversation. He realized, looking back at all their interactions, at all the times he thought he’d seen a flicker of something in Alastair’s eyes he couldn’t quite understand, that the other man had undoubtedly been doing that for months. If Thomas wanted - he realized quite suddenly in that moment - he could give some generic, noncommitted response, steer them back to neutral territory and Alastair would drop it all and probably not bring it up again. He was offering him an immediate out, no questions asked and no explanations required.</p>
<p>Thomas did not want that out. As mortifying as it would be to tell Anna and Lucie they were right, he had been dealing with feelings for Alastair Carstairs for far longer than even he would care to admit. And it would seem, Alastair had been doing the same.</p>
<p>“Smarter than me,” Thomas muttered and he had the pleasure of watching an amused smile break out across Alastair’s face. Before he could begin to overthink his decision or to let doubt creep back in, Thomas leaned down and did what he had been fantasizing and daydreaming about doing for months and even years; did what he thought Alastair might have been wanting him to do all along. He pressed his lips firmly against that beautiful smile.</p>
<p>He had made the poor man wait for far too long, after all; it would be downright unjust to make him wait any longer.</p>
<p>Alastair didn’t respond immediately and for a moment – an awkward, terrifying moment - Thomas’s mind jumped to the conclusion that he had somehow misconstrued the whole thing. Alastair was so much shorter than Thomas and it was an awkward angle to kiss him, bent forwards so much. Thomas went to move away but just as he went to straighten up, a sincere apology already on the tip of his tongue, Alastair’s hands were moving to wrap around Thomas’s neck and he was standing up straighter, nearly on the tips of his toes as he angled his face up and – most importantly, most beautifully of all – he was <em>kissing</em> Thomas back.</p>
<p>It was better than Thomas had ever imagined it would be. Alastair’s lips were soft against his own, his hands were warm and strong against his neck, his fingers sending chills down his spine as they wrapped themselves in the thick hair at the nape of his neck. Alastair’s body was impossibly warm as he pressed himself almost tentatively against Thomas, the feel of his hips underneath Thomas’s hands – when exactly he’d wrapped them around the smaller man, he couldn’t say – was exquisite. The feel of Alastair’s bare skin underneath Thomas’s calloused fingers – his black t-shirt had ridden up when Alastair had reached up to pull Thomas down towards him - was impossibly soft and smooth.</p>
<p>The feel of him was like a fire - mesmerizing, all-consuming. <em>He</em> was like a fire. And Thomas, like a man who’d been lost too long in winter’s cold embrace, was ready to burn. He was ready to be lost in the blazing inferno that was Alastair Carstairs.</p>
<p>Thomas didn’t remember stepping back – it was just as likely that Alastair had pushed him – but he was suddenly pressed against the wall of the storage room, right next to the stacked shelves. Alastair had moved with him, his lips never quite leaving Thomas’s, and suddenly there was a shift. Gone was any hint of tentativeness, any uncertainty. Alastair pressed himself firmly against him and his fingers, still wrapped in Thomas’s hair, pulled just hard enough to startle a low, pleasured gasp from the taller man. Thomas could feel every angle and every curve of Alastair’s body against his own now and he couldn’t help but let out a soft, tremulous moan as Alastair slotted his knee between Thomas’s legs, forcing them open so that he could push himself even closer to Thomas.</p>
<p>There was urgency then and Thomas’s fingers dipped lower than they had before, one hand abandoning the soft, creamy feel of Alastair’s waist to slip just slightly into the waistband of his trousers. The other went around, dipping low to cup Alastair’s ass firmly, prompting a hissed groan from the other man. One of Alastair’s hands dropped, in turn, to fumble with the button of Thomas’s trousers and his mouth had moved to pressing firm kisses against the corner of Thomas’s mouth and down his jaw and Thomas was gasping against him, against the feel of Alastair’s fingers and his body and –</p>
<p>“Hey lovebirds, there’s customers now!” And Anna’s voice came between them like a knife, shattering the moment into a thousand unrepairable pieces. Thomas flung his hands from Alastair’s body like he’d been shocked and Alastair quickly pushed himself away. Thomas blushed furiously at the sight of Alastair – his shirt was wrinkled beyond repair, his trousers had been pushed low onto his hips, and his lips were red and nearly swollen looking as he took several steadying breaths. He closed his eyes tightly, knowing that the sight of Alastair, thoroughly debauched, was going to haunt his dreams for nights to come, and took several rallying breaths of his own.</p>
<p>“Jesus Christ,” he heard Alastair mutter, his voice thick. Thomas knew he looked just as ruined as Alastair did and he swore he could feel the heaviness of the other man’s gaze against his body. He squeezed his eyes closed even more, knowing that if he gave in and opened them to see Alastair he would lose control all over again, and began counting back from ten in every language he knew, hoping to calm his body down.</p>
<p>“Hey! Did you hear me?” Anna’s voice, loud and amused and sounding far, far too close, certainly helped Thomas’s endeavor and his eyes flew open to meet Alastair’s, suddenly panicked.</p>
<p>Anna could <em>not</em> walk into this. Thomas wouldn’t survive it.</p>
<p>“We heard you! Just give us a moment!” Alastair called back, his voice tellingly hoarse.</p>
<p>Anna’s responding laughter was rather mortifying but at least it seemed to fade away rather than come closer.</p>
<p>“Oh my God.” Thomas said. He was still staring at Alastair, not quite able to break eye contact even as his face grew hot. There was silence for a moment, as both men looked at each other, and then – rather unexpectedly – Alastair burst out laughing. And like a dam had broken between them, Thomas joined in too. It took several long moments for the laughter to die down – they kept calming down, making eye contact and setting each other off again - and when it finally did, Alastair was smiling almost wickedly up at Thomas.</p>
<p>“I’ve been waiting months for you to make a move, but I got to admit, Lightwood, I wasn’t quite expecting <em>that</em>.” Thomas was pretty sure his cheeks were going to be permanently red at this point, but with Alastair seeming so pleased, he couldn’t say he minded it much.</p>
<p>“Yeah, well,” he coughed a little, “might as well make up for lost time?” His words startled another laugh from Alastair then and Thomas couldn't help but smile. “Anna’s going to be a right terror, though.” He added, scrunching his nose slightly. She was going to be <em>insufferable</em>.</p>
<p>“Not as bad as my sister will.” Alastair responded candidly. “She’s been urging me to make a move for months, and I kept telling her I was waiting on you. It’s a good thing Anna and Lucie came today, really. I was beginning to go a little crazy.” Alastair added. Thomas was surprised at how casual he sounded. He had no idea he talked to Cordelia about him. “Course, I’ll need to know exactly what to tell her.” He added pointedly, a silent question in his words.</p>
<p>Thomas didn’t even hesitate. “Hopefully that we’re dating. Now that we’re both caught up to the same page and all.”</p>
<p>The way Alastair’s face lit up with the brightest, widest smile Thomas had ever seen was almost worth the subsequent embarrassment of walking out of the storage room just to be greeted by a rather long line of customers all staring at them with impatient expressions.</p>
<p>The tantalizing feel of Alastair’s fingers brushed against his own and the promise of returning to their previous activities once Alastair’s shift was over – whispered in his ear as the other man passed by him to greet his first customer – was, on the other hand, absolutely worth suffering through Lucie’s knowing smile and Anna’s low wolf whistle as he returned to their table in crumpled clothing.</p>
<p>Even though he knew he wouldn’t hear the end of this from either woman and even though he knew he was in for so much more once the story got back to everyone back home, Thomas couldn’t help but smile as he looked over at Alastair, already busy with the first drink.</p>
<p>After all, being with Alastair was surely going to be worth any amount of embarrassment.</p>
<p>Even if it meant he would never be able to look at a coffee cup without blushing just a little.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I wrote this because I thought it'd be cute and funny and I really love this pairing. It's honestly just a lot of fluffy wish-fulfillment but I really liked writing it and I think we all enjoy soft, fluffy things in these stressful times. I had a lot of fun writing it (it definitely got away from me in some places but it was an enjoyable roller coaster) and I hope you liked reading it! Hope y'all are staying safe and healthy!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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